


Spilling my Coffee for your Heart

by crystalklances



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Pining Keith (Voltron), i guess?, sort of by the end at least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-07
Updated: 2017-07-07
Packaged: 2018-11-29 04:09:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11432853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystalklances/pseuds/crystalklances
Summary: “Either you just have horrible aim, or you really love spilling coffee on me,” Lance said. “Almost makes me think you’re trying to flirt with me.”Or: 5 times Keith spills coffee on Lance, and the 1 time he asks him out for coffee.





	Spilling my Coffee for your Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who's back with another thing to try to fight all my blocks and terrible slump? This guy right here. I had the first scenario idea forever ago, like way back in last September, but then it didn't happen until now.
> 
> Shoutout to the sprint happening on the supernova discord for making me able to finish this because i got too distracted for a while lol

1)

Keith should have known.

It was a nice, cold but sunny day in late autumn. The weather was so lovely that Keith decided to make a trip to a café off campus, have some coffee while walking around town. He really needed a change of scenery before he’d go back to studying and working on assignments in his dorm room. He could do that in the café, sure, but Keith rather wanted to do it in a more quiet setting, after a small break and catching some fresh air.

That being said, things were so nice that he should have known that something bad was going to happen, as it was always bound to be with his luck.

He didn’t have to wait long in line at the café. So far, so good. The coffee wasn’t too expensive, and he even got a cookie sample with it. Even better. Taking a sip while walking back to the exit revealed that the coffee was fantastic. Excellent.

But that’s when the good luck ended.

He stepped out of the door and before he could react, collided with someone. Keith could barely hold onto his paper cup, but the damage was already done—the other person cursed in a different language as their front was covered in hot coffee.

Keith took a closer look at the other person and groaned inwardly. Just his luck that it had to be a cute guy. A cute guy with a very horrified expression.

“My favorite vintage coat and favorite shirt!” the cute guy whined. “Now I have to go back and change! _And_ I’m gonna be late to study group!”

“I—I’m terrible, I mean, terribly sorry—“ Keith tried to apologize.

But the cute guy just stabbed a finger at his chest. “Don’t you ‘I’m terribly sorry!’ me!” he said. “You better watch where you’re going next time!” And with that, he stormed off in a huff.

Keith groaned. Sure, it wasn’t entirely his own fault, but he still wanted to apologize. He would’ve even invited the cute guy for a coffee or something!

His inner lament was interrupted by two voices next to him.

“Hey, wasn’t that Lance running off just now?”

“Sure looked like it. I wonder what happened.”

Keith turned around. He recognized them from campus—Hunk, the engineering and culinary genius, and Pidge, the computer wonder. Keith wanted to groan again. Sure, he knew that the cute guy was named Lance now, but at the cost of people bearing witness.

Hunk and Pidge were looking at Keith with curious eyes now.

“Oh, hey, it’s Keith, isn’t it?” Hunk asked.

“Uh, yeah, that’s me,” Keith replied lamely.

“You don’t by any chance know why our friend ran off like that just now?” Pidge asked.

“Uh…” Keith looked to the side. This really was awkward. There wasn’t really a way he could get out of this, though, so he sighed. “We ran into each other when I walked out of the café, and I spilled some of my coffee on him,” he explained. “I swear it was an accident, but he didn’t even let me apologize. He just ran off like that.”

“Aw, damn. And he’s wearing his favorite coat, too. He must’ve been really upset.” Hunk’s expression was sympathetic. Keith just groaned and nodded.

“Well, I guess now we’ll just have to wait for him,” Pidge said with a sigh.

Keith realized that the two of them must be Lance’s study buddies. He gave them an apologetic smile. “Sorry for delaying your study group like that.”

“No need to apologize, it happens.” Hunk waved him off.

Pidge said: “Good luck next time you meet him, Lance can hold grudges sometimes.”

“Warning noted.”

Keith watched as they entered the café, then finally walked back in the direction of campus. After this encounter, he didn’t feel like going on a walk anymore.

 

2)

The days went by without Keith seeing Lance again. Keith also stayed accident-free. He almost forgot all about their unfortunate first encounter.

But as the saying goes, history repeats itself.

Keith was walking to his next class, with some fresh coffee from one of the vending machines because there wasn’t enough time to go to the coffee shop during the brief break. He could do with the less-than-satisfying quality this once.

He walked carefully so as not to spill anything from the cheap plastic cup that he had to hold with a grip on the brim from above. But, of course, when he crossed the corner was when his luck ran out.

“Ay!”

“Ugh…”

This time, Keith did drop his cup. At least, he thought, he remained standing—unlike the other person. With his stomach dropping, Keith realized that it was Lance.

Lance, sitting on his butt on the floor, a sketch pad in front of him—a sketch pad practically swimming in the middle of a coffee puddle.

“Oh, shit, I’m so sorry!” Keith frantically tried to apologize or _do_ something, but he was lost. He didn’t have anything at hand to wipe up this mess.

He watched as Lance scrambled to pick up his soaked sketch pad, despite the hot liquid. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Lance wailed. “My assignments are in there! I’m gonna end up failing, fuck!”

“I’m so—“

“I don’t have the time to listen to your blabbering!” Lance snapped. “I have to fix this somehow…!”

Keith watched him run off. He was so sure he heard a faint sniffle.

He wanted to sink into the floor. This was so much worse than the last time. Would there even be a way to make it up to Lance now?

It didn’t help that a crowd of students nearby had seen everything. Keith wanted to sink even further. Just when he turned around to get paper towels from the nearest restroom, someone tapped him on the shoulder. It was Rolo, a guy from the upper year. He held out a stash of paper towels which Keith accepted with a grateful nod.

“Some tough luck, huh?” Rolo said.

“You can say that again,” Keith groaned. “This was the second time I spill coffee on him on accident. I can only hope it won’t happen again.”

“Good luck, buddy,” Rolo said.

Keith could really use some good luck if things kept going like this.

 

3)

Things did, in fact, keep going like this, and Keith did not, in fact, have any change of luck.

It was weeks after the second incident with Lance, right at the end of winter break. Keith was sitting in one of the common rooms, reading a book with a cup of coffee in front of him on the table. He had bought the coffee some time ago, so it wasn’t scaldingly hot anymore, but still a decent temperature to drink.

He was reading _Inkheart_ , a book by a German author he somehow never read while growing up, but found he enjoyed a lot. He really loved the concept of stories coming alive through reading them aloud, and the idea of actually reading yourself _into_ a story in similar fashion. There was a lot of suspense with the whole run and hide from the bad guys, and Keith was so drawn in he didn’t really pay attention to his surroundings. He took a sip and placed the cup too far near the edge, not balancing properly.

Of course, someone had to walk by his table right at the moment the cup fell over. Because Keith had ditched the lid, the liquid spilled right onto the pants of the unfortunate person.

“Oh, come on!”

Keith paled. He knew that voice well by now.

It was Lance.

Lance, who looked rather frustrated when Keith dared look up at him.

Keith opened his mouth to speak, but Lance interrupted him. “Is this some kind of joke to you?” he asked.

“No—no, I just—I’m—I didn’t pay attention, I’m sorry,” Keith stuttered.

Lance sighed exasperatedly. “Yeah, apparently you’re pretty good at that. Can you at least _try_? It’s kind of annoying that I have to get changed or fix my assignments every time I run into you.”

Keith winced. “I’m so, so sorry about that one,” he said earnestly. “Did you still fix them?”

“I was lucky that my professor likes me and accepted them with an explanation,” Lance said.

“Oh, that’s good, thank God.”

“Yeah, it may have ended well, but I still had an anxiety attack.” Lance frowned. “So, just _try_ to be careful if your mullet head already has to drink coffee all the time.”

“It’s not a—I mean, yeah, I’ll try. I mean, it’s not like I do it on purpose because I really don’t!”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, coffee spiller.”

And with that, Lance left, and Keith was left to clean up the mess of his coffee. He sighed and flipped the case of his e-reader closed. At least this time, it wasn’t such a large puddle. And, he thought, this time he had some kind of conversation with Lance, even if it was an argument.

 

4)

One afternoon, Keith was sitting out in the yard area with Shiro. They were sitting at one of the sets of picknick tables, just catching up and talking. Keith had some coffee, but he was so caught up in their conversation that he forgot all about it somewhere in between, resulting in about half a cup of cold coffee.

Keith sighed. “Guess it’s time to toss that away.” He took aim at the trash bin near another table.

“Are you sure that’s such a good idea? Your aim isn’t always reliable,” Shiro pointed out.

“Of course it’s a good idea,” Keith said. “Also, yolo. I’ll do it for the vine.”

“Is that an invitation to film you?”

“Do what makes you happy.”

Without waiting for another reply, Keith threw the cup, and it didn’t go so bad—until it went way overhead and hit the head of an innocent bystander.

A very familiar innocent bystander with curly brown hair, bronze skin, and a blue and white color scheme.

“Shit,” Keith cursed under his breath. “Just when I promised I’d be careful.”

Shiro just gave him a puzzled look, but Keith didn’t bother explaining now—he jogged over to Lance, ready to apologize.

However, Lance had already started to walk up as well, and he spoke first. “Either you just have horrible aim, or you really love spilling coffee on me,” he said. “Almost makes me think you’re trying to flirt with me.”

“I’m not doing that on purpose,” Keith blurted out. Honestly, he wouldn’t mind _flirting_ with Lance, but this really wasn’t why he did it. After all, the first time it happened was the first time Keith met him at all! “And I really am trying to be careful I just—well, I wanted to see if I can aim at the trash bin. For science.”

“Well, in that case … you’re forgiving. Looks like that experiment failed though, huh?” Lance raised an eyebrow.

“If it was a knife, it would’ve been a success.”

Lance snorted. “Well then, take care, coffee spilling samurai.”

Keith watched him go with a sigh. Now he had to explain to Shiro what that was all about … all while ignoring his beating heart and how warm he felt inside.

 

5)

Ever since Lance had used it on him, the name “coffee spiller” stuck wherever Keith went with a cup of coffee. It got so bad that Keith stopped having coffee for a while, at least around people on campus. It wasn’t so much that it bothered him; it was just really annoying. Though it probably helped that no one said it in a mean spirit, just in teasing tones. People knew about his unlucky moments with Lance, and some even told him in secret that they were rooting for him.

There was also that he was sort of striking a friendship with Pidge and Hunk—and even with Lance, he managed to have some passing greetings. With leaving out coffee on the go, he could try to approach Lance without fear of an accident, too.

Except, naturally, Keith’s luck would run out eventually.

He was making his way through the crowded hallway after lunch break. Keith was usually pretty good at maneuvering through crowds, but for some reason, it was especially bad that day.

Someone bumped into Keith, leading to Keith bumping into someone—and for that someone to yelp in pain.

Keith cursed his luck. _Of course_ it had to be Lance.

“I’m sorry,” Keith said.

Lance turned with a weak smile. It was a bit pained due to just spilling scalding coffee on himself, but it made Keith’s heart beat faster nonetheless. “It happens,” he said. “At least this time it wasn’t your own coffee, huh?”

“Uh, I guess…”

“Well, I’ll see you around, then.”

Lance left for the nearest restroom. Due to the crowd still going, Keith wasn’t able to really watch him go this time.

 

+1)

Keith would do it. He would ask Lance out the next time he saw him. He would ask him out on a coffee date (or, well, not necessarily a _date_ , just coffee). Both to make up for the past mess ups, as well as for the most recent one of causing Lance’s coffee to spill instead of his own.

He wasn’t sure yet how he was going to do it, or when there would be an opportunity, but he swore he would do it. It couldn’t be that hard to ask a cute guy like Lance out for coffee, right? He just—he just had to go up and ask.

And it’s not like Lance hated him or anything; their interactions after the first three times had really started to get better. They had _bonded_. So yes, Keith could do it. He just had to do it. It would all be fine. I mean, Lance made a teasing comment about flirting before, that had to mean something, right?

The more time passed, the more restless Keith grew. Why was it that now he didn’t run into Lance anymore? Was that just part of his bad luck again? Keith didn’t know, and it didn’t really matter, but he hoped that he would cross paths again soon. Very soon, hopefully, before he went crazy with this piled up tension.

It seems the universe took pity on him for once, after all.

One pleasant afternoon in spring, Keith was sitting outside, when he saw Lance walk a short distance away. That was it, that was his chance. He had to seize it.

“Hey!” he called out, jumping up and sprinting towards him.

“Oh, hello, Keith,” Lance said. “What can I do for you, my coffee spilling samurai?”

“Oh, uh, I just wanted to ask you something.” Keith paused, trying to gather his thoughts. But in the end, he blurted out: “Will you go on a coffee date with me?”

“Sure, why not?”

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah, sure. You’re pretty cool when you’re not ruining my clothes or my sketch pad,” Lance teased.

Keith groaned. “I’m still so terribly sorry about that,” he said. “That’s actually part of why I’m asking you out, along with spilling _your_ coffee that last time.” He paused again. “But mostly it’s because you’re adorable.”

“Thank you, Keith. You’re not too bad yourself.” Lance grinned. “So… when are we doing this date?”

“I don’t know, are you free right now?”

“For a handsome guy like you? Sure.”

“Great, then let’s go. My treat, of course.”

To Keith’s relief, the spell of bad luck was broken and ever since they got together, no more coffee was spilled.

**Author's Note:**

> Inkheart is actually my favorite book series soooo it was bound to be that I bring it up in fic one day. I never read it in English tho lol it'd feel weird to me
> 
> I can be found on [twitter](http://twitter.com/crystalklances) and [tumblr](http://crystalklances.tumblr.com)!


End file.
